


In The Attic

by Ladyylavender



Category: Beetlejuice (1988), Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Canon Compliant - Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King, F/M, Ghosts, Headcanon, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, One Shot, Short, Suicide, bad one shot, musical vers, shitty - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-22 10:22:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22614649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladyylavender/pseuds/Ladyylavender
Summary: Adam and Barbara Maitland knew Lydia had her own issues, but they never expected this.
Relationships: Adam Maitland/Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland
Comments: 4
Kudos: 48





	In The Attic

Another scream sounded from downstairs, sending chills down Barbara’s spine. Despite the thick walls of the attic, the Maitland ghosts could quite clearly hear the commotion going on in the lower part of the house. Barbara looked up at her husband with fearful eyes. He looked back at her with an equally pained expression but said nothing.  
The Maitlands had been moping in the attic for a while now, although they couldn’t exactly be certain for how long exactly. As Beetlejuice had previously told them: time moved much faster for the deceased.  
The demon had turned the old home into a sort of haunted house. He and Lydia waiting for their next victims to scare with whatever horrible tricks they could think of.  
Adam stood up from his dusty seat (he had gotten it from an old Chinese couple who claimed it could increase fertility). “Barbara we can’t just sit here and do nothing. Not when those two are scaring all those people.”, the man flailed his arms around at the word “scaring” in a strange way. Barbara looked down at her feet and sighed. Despite the intense shame it brought, the couple couldn’t make themselves go downstairs to help Lydia. What was the point anyway? The girl would cling to anyone who cared for her and wasn’t too much like her father. The Maitlands happened to be, unfortunately.   
As Adam continued his pacing and ranting of how wrong Beetlejuice’s idea of fun was, Barbara pondered her own bravery. She wondered if her time spent alive had been worth it. Was it really? With all the junk in the attic, the ghost wondered if-  
“Hey-O!”  
The wooden door to the attic was slammed open with a bang as the all too familiar entity appeared before the couple. Beetlejuice was wearing a strange hat of some sorts, made of what looked like bone and tar (knowing the demon, it was likely real). Adam’s pacing came to a halt as he stared on in slight disgust. His wife couldn’t exactly blame him though. BJ’s discoloured skin reminded her of those photos warning against heroin use by showing its victims. “How’s my favourite straight couple doing?”, BJ yelled as he grabbed Adam by the shoulder and pressed him against his own. Adam struggled to push away. “L-look. We aren’t in the mood.”, Adam mumbled, managing to scamper away from Beetlejuice. Barbara stood up and joined her husbands side and stared at BJ in annoyance. The demon in question frowned exaggeratedly. “Aw. Don’t be a buzzkill. I’m just trying to pay the dearly departed a visit.”. The couple in question simply stared back uncomfortably. After a moment of awkward silence, BJ approached the Maitlands with a toothy grin. “Seriously though, Lydia’s a bit tired out from the celebrating and taking a nap. Breathers sure get tired easily.”. The demons ramblings seemed quite meaningless to Barbara and Adam. They weren’t exactly sure how to shut up someone like Beetlejuice though. “The kids been much happier since her old man left so that’s pretty cool.”. “Happy?”, Barbara finally spoke up, pleasantly surprising BJ. The woman pointed an accusatory finger at the floating man in front of her and conjured up her best stern expression. “Do you think scaring helpless visitors is going to make her happy? Unlike you she actually has a life to live.”. Beetlejuice snorted lightly before replying: “Yeah thanks to me!”. His joke stopped Barbara rant in its tracks as both she and her husband paused. “What do you mean?”. Adam asked and went to stand by his wife’s side. “Ohhh, you don’t know.”, Beetlejuice started rather disinterested in the Maitlands concern. He examined his yellowing nails and crossed his legs in mid-air. “Yeah, Lydia tried to throw herself off the roof the other day. It was pretty depressing but I managed to stop her.”  
Distantly, the Maitlands registered more commotion downstairs but at the moment their minds were blank. Barbara felt herself freeze and Adam stared at Beetlejuice with a horrified expression. Said demon, stared back in confused amusement at the couples silence. “Uhh why the long faces?”, he shrugged awkwardly. “What the heck do you mean Lydia tried to kill herself?”, Adam rushed past his frozen wife to face BJ. His face a rare shade of angry red. BJ backed away and put his hands in the air defensively. “Hey why are you mad at me? I’m the one who saved her, after all. You should be thanking me.”, he shouted back.  
Barbara still felt her muscles stiffening beneath her undead skin, goosebumps refusing to die down. She only distantly heard her husband arguing with Beetlejuice. She saw Adams mad expression and pained eyes, she saw BJ’s defensive pose, but it everything was hitting her at the speed of a snail. All her thoughts were invaded by the image of Lydia on the roof the night of the dinner party. Barbara hadn’t realized what Lydia had been doing there. She just assumed she wanted to calm down after her fathers scolding. Barbara hadn’t even thought about the other possibilities of why Lydia was on a roof.   
“Barbara?”  
Adam was in front of her with a worried expression. How long had he been there? “Are you alright?”, Adam asked once more. Barbara blinked before nodding slowly. She noticed no signs of Beetlejuice.   
“Did he leave?”  
“Who, Beetlejuice? Yeah he got tired of arguing with me and left. Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten so mad at him.”, the last sentence was mumbled in embarrassment. There was no response.  
With nothing to say, Barbara reached around Adam to hold him close to her. Said man hugged her back with little hesitation. The couple wasn’t sure what to say to one another and so the attic remained silent before Barbara pulled away from the embrace.   
“We have got to help Lydia”  
Adam nodded solemnly, cursing his fear of Beetlejuice as he held onto his wife’s cold hands.

**Author's Note:**

> Lydias suicide attempt isn’t talked about enough in the musical so I wrote a shitty one shot.


End file.
